Participated in the Meet a Scientist program at the Field Museum by sharing research and specimens with public visitors through this program.

Participated on many occasions in the “Talk to the Scientist” hour communicating science and my research to museum visitors for the Field Museum’s pubic exhibit DNA Discovery Center.

Teacher / Educator training

Created a double-sided “Ants of the Florida Keys” poster and list of K-12 educator resources that comply with the US national Next Generation Science Standards, so teachers can extend the use of the poster for teaching about biodiversity, ecology and evolution in the classroom. These resources were mailed to over 350 K-12 science teachers in southern Florida and the Chicago region (March 2013). | Download Poster || Download Illinois Educator Handout || Download Florida Educator Handout |

Co-instructed a Simply Science workshop titled “Cultivating Curiosity” as part of the Families First Workshop series (October 2011).

Gave a tour and presentation to high school teachers-in-training as part of the University of Chicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) (June 2011).

Co-instructed an IMLS funded “Parents as Educators” workshop series “Investigations into Science” sponsored by the Field Museum’s Education Department (April 2011).

K-12 student training

Lead workshop and lecture for the Youth Design Team academic course offered through the Field Museum (October 2012). This course for academic credit gives students in 10th – 12th grade from across the Chicago region the opportunity to actively participate in science, museum studies, and exhibit design.

Gave scientific tours of the Field Museum’s Insect Collections and DNA Discovery Center to two groups of students for the CIMBY High School Science Summit (May 2011).

CoolHub Global Science Seminar presentation for STEM teaching and learning. Online, realtime, interactive presentation to high school students from around the world titled “Ants, DNA, and Bacteria, Oh My!” (October 2010).

Gave a lecture and participated in the short film created for the exhibit for the FMNH Museology Course for middle school students from Chicago area schools (January 2010).

Gave lecture and lead tour to the summer 2010 “High School Transformation Project” Chicago public high school science interns – June 2010.Gave two lectures for the FMNH-AAAS Middle School Summit on Evolution to promote science education to middle school students from Chicago inner city schools (January 2009).

Participated in the AAAS “Breakfast with Scientists” event to encourage retention of high school students in science careers (January 2009).

Gave four lectures to minority public high school students at Oakland (California) Leadership Public Schools College Park titled “What do scientists do and how do you become one” (October 2008).

Lead tours of Field Museum’s scientific collections and/or DNA laboratory to many high school groups.

Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch® website featured an interview regarding our 2006 “Science” paper because it was identified by Thomson Reuters Essential Science IndicatorsSM to be one of the most cited papers in the research area of “early ant evolution” (February 2010)

Ant bacteria research published in PNAS highlighted on several media websites including Genome Web, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, First Science, among others (December 2009).

Member of the SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) Social Media Street Team to help promote the activities during the annual meeting in Long Beach, CA, USA (2016).